1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluid distribution apparatus, to an artificial moving bed using the fluid distribution apparatus, and also to a continuous adsorption method for continuously operating adsorption chambers by using the artificial moving beds.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a means of separating and purifying fluids, an adsorption method has been in wide use which employs silica gel, activated carbon, zeolite and ion-exchange resins as adsorbents.
Among representative adsorption methods are (a) the Parex method and the Molex method, which involve dividing an adsorbent-packed fixed bed into several stages and performing adsorption, desorption and regeneration processes successively and parallelly in the packed beds by manipulating a rotary switching valve. These methods produce effects similar to those obtained by the continuous countercurrent method using adsorbent-packed moving beds. The Parex method and the Molex method are employed for purifying paraxylene and oil refining, respectively (as described in UOPSORB-10-09-85, for example).
Another known method (b) (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 32482/1985) connects a plurality of ordinary adsorption chambers with each other by pipes, feeds a liquid or fluid to be processed, an adsorption liquid and a regeneration liquid to each of the adsorption chambers, provides these adsorption chambers with piping and valves to extract these liquids from the chambers, and operates the valves successively according to a time schedule to perform such operations as adsorption, desorption and cleaning in parallel.
In still another popular method (c) (for example, ADVANCE SEPARATION TECHNOLOGIES Inc. ISEP system), a number of adsorption chambers are fixedly mounted in circle on a circular rotatable stand; the rotatable stand is turned to rotate these adsorption chambers; an outlet pipe and an inlet pipe connected to each of the adsorption chambers are connected to a pair of upper and lower stationary valves; as the adsorption chambers are rotated, these liquids are supplied to each adsorption chamber successively through the stationary valves to carry out adsorption and desorption continuously.